Are you thinking that it might grow back faster than the rabbits can eat it?

What caught my attention in that blog post was the weigela. Not for this spring, but I have in mind a planting of dark-leafed weigelas with ilex 'Gem Box' along the front of my house.

You are a funny one @Paul NY 5b-6a!

What caught my attention in that blog post was the weigela.

And hydrangea "Puffer Fish" described as a "supersize" BOBO with "much bigger" blooms.

(Heck, if only for the name I might buy it ;))

I like 'Puffer Fish' a whole lot better than 'Pinky Winky!! That is the most inane plant name I can recall :-)

pfft. For my next hydr. purchase in 2025, waiting for the *new and improved* genetics of Macs which will take full sun and won't brown bloom out.

my next hydr. purchase in 2025

Wow you are a quite the 'planner' @a1an!

Heh.

As much as I like how - summer bulletproof- the white blooms are, wouldn't mind some sunproof color Hydra.

Wishful thinking / wishful thinker.

I hope the plant is as good as hyped. When Endless Summer first came out, I scooped one up. What a disappointment. Not only didn't I get blooms, the plant never grew much bigger than 2'.

For me, IME with LD Rave and Rhythmic, is that the rebloom occurs so late in the season - circa, mid-late Aug. sofar in my observations

And hydrangea "Puffer Fish" described as a "supersize" BOBO with "much bigger" blooms.

I haven't seen/read any 'first hand' reports re PF on houzz. Given that it is already August I guess that it wont be available until 2023.

This is Spring Meadow's full sun, field trial in Michigan zone 5. Let's dance Sky View (5 plants) in the foreground in amongst various other rebloomers including comparison varieties. It has bloomed reliably every year since 2018 and they are killed to the ground each year. These are not remotent blooms - those will come in late summer. These flowers originate from vernalized but that are low on the stem. It is a mac serrata (Tuff Stuff) hybrid. The next set of flowers come from basal bud at ground level. The remontent blooms will appear in mid to late August. We have acid sandy soils with low levels of aluminum. This plant wants to be blue, but it will be pink in container mixes that contain no aluminum. They do receive regular watering and spring fertilization, but is poor soil and in a wide open windy location with no protection.

Dang it Rogue ;-) I don't have area's for plantings but I bought one since Tim mentioned it's a hybrid with some Seratta Genetics. Just had to see how this one compares to the other LD I have (rhytmic and rave) which now are a bit larger than dwarf at 40" H and almost getting similar in width.

If that's how it performs after all wood is killed to the ground, then certainly not a long shot for it to do well even in colder climates when given some protection! I'll be looking out for 'Let's Dance Sky View!"

I don't follow -new- releases and availibility but all I see was 1G. Will there be a 3G this year or all the growers will have cuttings and more like 2024/2025 is when larger pot sizes will be available . Regardless, I ordered the 1G just to have for '23. I tend to grab gravitae towards the 5G if I'm at the nursery

For all you hydrangea gurus, is mac+serratta a common hybrid. This is what caught my eye. The seratta part...

I have a seratta (no clue which one - came with the house), that forms a nice privacy hedge

Until quite recently, H. serrata was considered to be just another form - a subspecies - of Hydrangea macrophylla. It has just been the last couple of decades that serratas have been regarded as a separate species and many hydrangea authorities still regard this as a mac subspecies. I doubt you will find many plants that are considered to be hybrids.....and there is nothing in Let's Dance Sky Views parentage/origination to suggest that it is a hybrid. Neither is Tuff Stuff or Twist and Shout.

While macs can have both mounded, mophead type flowers or lacecaps, serratas are almost always lacecaps. 'Preziosa' is the only cultivar I am aware of that confusion exists as to its origination......macrophylla? serrata? or a possible hybrid?

Thx GG. In this thread , TW mentioned it. When I went to look up the speced growth habits (since it was in the LD series and that implied it was on the smaller scale) on PW site, it's listed as macrophylla X serratta....

@FrozeBudd_z3/4 wrote:

I'll be looking out for 'Let's Dance Sky View!"

Hey 'FB', I bought a Sky View just this morning.

Is your's nursery (timed) and babied just in time for Mothers Day full of blooms.

I have a pair with full on brocolli. So far, given it 2 Alu Sul. waterings as she's coming up pink

Rouge, I haven't yet really made my way around to many nurseries, will do so shortly, HD often carries a decent good selection.

Is your's nursery (timed) and babied just in time for Mothers Day full of blooms.

No @a1an, The ones I saw had just the slightest bit of "brocolli" showing.

I planted mine in a container when I got home and did a watering with al. sulp. (If I remember I will do another in a week or so.)

will do so shortly, HD often carries a decent good selection.

There are so many varieties in the "Lets Dance" line-up.

Rouge, in all your nursery travels have you been to the re-born Lost Horizon yet? I am planning to have a look there tomorrow.

Hello @gdinieontarioz5. You are very correct in that I have had extensive "nursery travels" so far this spring...crazy lots. But the "new" LH has not been on my itinerary.

For sure let me know what you find.

Will do, but then in the LH thread.

I mail ordered a LDSV last fall and it is now green and growing from the crown (like all macs) in zone 4 MN. Looking forward to see how it compares to the others I have for blooming

I went looking for annuals and left with zero annuals .....they must have been depleted from mothers day shoppers. Luckily I did snag some about 2 weeks ago as I know how fast trays get depleted....

However I did walk out with a LD Can Do. Mainly cause it was almost purple and the lacecaps heads do it for me . They got me cause it was purple.

I had to *re-read* this thread to circle back on Tim's comment. As I reading the descriptor of the Can Do after grabbing one, I recall something similar and Tim states "These flowers originate from vernalized but that are low on the stem. "

With the late frost that killed about the top 1/4 to 1/3 of the buds that were showing, and me seeing just a few signs of brocolli *eh we'll see how much flower we get thisyear*, I guess for those Zone 6/Zone5 posters in here, I now see also what would be intriguing on the potential flowering power

but it will be pink in container mixes that contain no aluminum.

I bought one back in May and put it in a pot. I have watered it twice with added alum sulphate. Here it is today:

I planted a small one gallon last fall and here it is today.

Mine is mildly floppy - mainly it's a young 1G but it was full of buds.

Growing this is a pot for a bit to see it's bloom characteristics. May not be a fair comparison as the blooms are -smaller- around 6-7 inches or so in diamter

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/p97zs5t2v1t6lj60b1lu8/IMG_1371.jpeg?rlkey=rw8cxrz62jtue5kb3pcuanwo6&dl=0

Maybe I haven't noticed or -looked- for it on my other mac's but on both LD Sky View and LD Can do, new brocolli on the 2 side shoots have minorly developed right below this years bloom on a few stems here and there. It's not from -new wood- but from the same old wood.

Rougue -

Just posted in my Can Do thread but I if this is part of reblooming, it's interesting....

I have seen new blooms from *new* wood but this pic is after deadheading this years bloom ....and 1 or 2 leafsets below..on old wood

I'm still clairying if this is reblooming or was this from last years buds.....I'm still in N00B stage

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/v08azbkbtcdgc3xtsa0lo/IMG_1417.jpeg?rlkey=aqnmsvyn7q650ow13mc04a0k8&dl=0

I went Edward Scissorhands today. Since I had 2, I left one alone (there are some blooms I did deadhead as it was bit crisp). It won't be a true A / B test come this fall

The second one, off with his head it went.

A test to see what it will look like later on this fall or not .....

Excellent @a1an, I love an experiment.

A lil history on the sky views acquisition

Wasn't planning it

We had a late frost freeze. I ended removing like 2ft off each end with dead buds. Here I was thinking, going to be a leafy bush this year.

So I ordered the skyviews to trial....due to it's marketed abilities...

Strangley, its almost August but the Macs' which I ended removing 2 feet of late frost bud damage, it's about 50% covered in blooms which I wasn't expecting. Some of it is also coming from *new wood* .

Maybe the innovation in breeding is accurate on those pesky marketing verbiage.

Check out those Can Do Pics. I wouldn't even have looked for it until I spied one new brocolli and when I poked around further, new buds on *old wood* below a bloomed head. I dunno, but having a 2nd flush of new blooms to replace aged-tired blooms on old wood is new to me

UPDATE: July 2024

I overwintered this Skyview in a permanent container in the garage in November 2023 and then moved it back out again in later March or early April 2024). Here it is today:

(That ain't no "sky" blue so clearly I did not apply enough aluminum sulphate?)

(Hey @FrozeBudd_z3/4 did you pick up a "Skyview" last year or even this season?)

I bought two Sky Views a few weeks ago. They are still in the nursey containers. The blooms are large, but pale. I intend to put them both in large containers. I hope the colors become more vivid after I had acidifer and fertilizer and they are more established next season.

Good performance so far blooming mid summer to fall the last 2 years. I will need to move the seedling bleeding heart this fall.

The coloring of this particular cultivar will always be pale, much like Nikko Blue or Endless Summer Original. It is easily encouraged to bloom blue by acidifying the planting soil but it will not develop any more intensity or darker, more vivid coloring by doing so. It will always remain "sky" blue (or pink with a higher pH).

Yes 'gg' I do get how to get bluish flowers ie the application of aluminum sulphate to acidify the soil. But now I think my clearly pink flowers wasn't my "fault" in that I did apply aluminum sulphate on two separate occasions and by coincidence an experienced gardening friend of mine asked me similarly, just in the past hour, about the colour of my Skyview blooms as she had also applied aluminum sulphate pre flowers and yet her flowers are pink as well. Hmm.

I find the persistence of your Sky View to remain pink a bit surprising, rouge. I don't grow this cultivar myself but all the literature indicates its coloring responds well to soil chemistry. In fact, Proven Winners has named it their "Hydrangea of the Year" for 2024 and with this description: "Its mophead blooms emerge soft blue with a honeydew green eye before maturing to a full sky blue. Growers will find that it shifts easily from pink to blue." And the vast majority of online images show it a clear sky blue color with only a few pink flowered images displayed.

I will take as granted that with your experience growing hydrangeas, the aluminum sulfate was applied as directed and as often as suggested. 😁

I agree that SKYview is intended to be blue (it was blue for me last season, its first season).

And yup I do have experience using aluminum sulphate succesfully. All I can say at this point is that I will be more 'careful' next year when applying it?

(But another "hard core" gardener with the same pink result for this same variety, also using aluminum sulphate seems a bit odd).

My Sky View is also curiously pink. I have a bunch of macs and apply aluminum sulfate to all of them. They're all very blue except Sky View & Lets Dance Can Do! which is pale pinkish purple. I was surprised and dismayed by the pinkness of Sky View so I gave it a second application. Today was day one of five days in a row around 100F - they will probably be quite brown by the end of this.

Colour "screw-up" aside, Skyview is a bloom machine. Here it is today, covered with flowers. And its location is in lots of shade.

ITA with@ rouge21_gw (CDN Z5b/6a). My two Sky View hydrangeas are bloom machines even though they are still in the original nursery pots. They are constantly putting out new buds which is why I have held off on putting them in larger containers. Oddly, the blooms started off as light blue and they are now putting out huge light purple blooms. I will put them in larger containers with soil acidifier in fall and overwinter them in my shed.